Boyfriend found guilty of Hanover Park murder

Rafael Alvarado apparently did himself no favors when he testified in his own defense Friday as his murder trial concluded in Rolling Meadows.

The guilty verdict, which followed nearly five hours of deliberation, suggested the seven-woman, five-man jury did not believe Alvarado's claims that drug dealers beat his pregnant girlfriend, Norma Favela, to death last year in their Hanover Park home.

Favela's friends and family members sobbed outside the courtroom and hugged prosecutors after the verdict was announced at about 8:45 p.m. in a day that concluded with a heartbreaking photo of Alvarado's youngest victim: a healthy, eight-month fetus with a shock of dark hair who never took a single breath. She did not survive the savage hammer attack Alvarado inflicted upon her mother shortly before midnight June 3, 2009.

The only maternal embrace the baby girl ever felt came as her mother held her in the casket they shared, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Andre, whose voice broke during his emotional closing in which he urged jurors to find the 33-year-old Alvarado guilty of first-degree murder and the intentional homicide of an unborn child. The jury also found Alvarado's actions indicative of wanton cruelty, which could send him to prison for life.

Cook County Assistant Public Defender Daniel Naranjo insisted the state offered no credible testimony suggesting his client had reason to murder his girlfriend and their unborn child. Moreover, prosecution witnesses testified the couple was in love and that Alvarado, a Chicago native who spent his youth in Mexico, treated both Favela and her daughters well, Naranjo said.

As for Alvarado's videotaped confession, Naranjo said his client "had given up completely" after he learned "that the love of his life was gone."

Prosecutors refuted those claims, saying jealousy and anger motivated the murder.

"What kind of person would do this? What kind of person would take a hammer and repeatedly hit her in the face, over and over again?" asked Cook County Assistant State's Attorney David Weiner in his impassioned rebuttal. "The answer in this case is painfully obvious. Rafael Alvarado is that kind of man."

Holding up a photograph of the vibrant, smiling Favela as she looked before the attack that broke her nose, knocked out her teeth, lacerated her face and fractured her jaw and her skull, Weiner repeated what he said were Alvarado's own words: "If I can't have Norma, nobody can."

Weiner reminded jurors that Alvarado admitted in the videotaped police interview that he murdered Favela, also a U.S. citizen, after they argued. Pointing out that Alvarado is heard waiving his Miranda rights, Weiner rejected the defense's assertion that stress after 12 hours in custody without access to an attorney prompted the confession.

That Alvarado tried to escape, asking a friend to drive him to his uncle's home and than asking his uncle to drive him to Mexico shows "consciousness of guilt," Weiner said, adding that an innocent man calls police and provides them information; a guilty man runs away. Fortunately, police apprehended Alvarado just as and his uncle backed out of his uncle's garage.

Four prosecution witnesses previously testified Alvarado told them he had killed Favela. On Friday, prosecutors introduced testimony from Illinois State Police forensic scientists who matched Favela's DNA to blood stains found on Alvarado's clothes.

Alvarado, who admitted selling drugs to make ends meet, tried to pin the murder on drug dealers who stole three kilograms of cocaine and killed Favela in the process. He claimed he arrived home that night to find Favela beaten. Her blood soaked his clothes when he held her, he said. A short time later he said he noticed three kilos of cocaine missing from their bedroom closet.

"That's when I realized the cause of her being beaten was a robbery," he said.

The animated Alvarado testified that he went outside to look for a suspicious car and perhaps get a license plate number. He insisted he did not confess to witnesses that he killed Favela, only that he "felt responsible for her being beaten."

"Even to this day I feel responsible," he said.

He claimed he didn't call the police because he was too nervous to dial the number and knew his friend's relatives would call. After his arrest, he claimed he asked police repeatedly for an attorney but they ignored him. He said he admitted to the murder after learning Favela had died.

"My world crumbled around me," he said, adding he no longer cared if he lived or died.

In a withering cross examination, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Gerber questioned Alvarado's decision to take the cocaine but leave Favela's sleeping children alone in the house. Gerber scoffed at Alvarado's claim he went looking for the killer. Lastly, Gerber confronted Alvarado with his jealousy and what Gerber said were Alvarado's own words: that if Alvarado can't have Norma, no one can.

"I'm a victim of circumstances," Alvarado said.

"Yes you are," retorted Gerber, "as was Norma."